To Play The Story To A Glorious Finish
by Ember Nickel
Summary: Sazed talks with his friends, after the last chapter of "Hero of Ages." Yuletide gift for wei.


_Thanks to seekingferret for looking this over!_

The world seemed distant, as if viewed through mist.

It was insubstantial, or at least, in flux. Time passed-it might have been a second, it might have been thousands of years. What mattered was that it was going forward. And beyond them, the world changed.

There was a flash-barely perceptible, noticeable if at all for the blur of change rather than anything specific. And then, in its wake, the sense of something fading, like an afterimage.

An afterimage of red, left behind by a trail of bright greenness.

And then, sometime after that, there came a soft prodding and patting. As insensible as a passing torch causing a change in somebody's shadow-an unimportant object, hardly part of _them _at all, just a trick of the light that had borrowed their body.

And then, even later, another change.

"Vin? Elend? Kelsier?"

"Sazed," Vin answered. She could only have predeceased him by moments-couldn't she? For some reason she had felt peace, but the thought of what the rest of the world must be going through brought terror back. "I'm sorry."

"No," he called, "look."

And he spread something aside-his arm, without the bracelets? Suddenly the world came into focus, bright and green and alive.

Kelsier caught what passed for his breath. "You see, this is where faith becomes useful. To have a god's name to take in-amazement."

"Er," said Sazed. "I have, more or less, taken on the powers of Preservation. And, for that matter, Ruin. In a sense they balance each other."

"You did that."

"I think so."

"Mare must be so happy."

"Where-have you spoken to her?"

"Not yet."

Sazed paused, trying to gauge a sense of time. "Let me try something."

Vin felt that same distant tugging again, and then a nearby clamminess, almost as if someone was trying to hold her hand, but could not reach for it.

"What was that for?" came Elend's worried cry.

"You felt it too?" she asked.

"I can sense you here," Sazed explained, "while your bodies remain in the world, somewhat well-preserved given your recent activities. I was hoping, perhaps, that this power might restore you to life."

"Well, that's the thing," said Elend. "Restore? I mean, I don't feel dead."

"I've felt more alive," Vin muttered. "But Preservation, it's gone, that power..."

"As I said, I have taken it onto myself," said Sazed. "United with Ruin, they can work with rather than against each other. I am hopeful for the future, now."

"Well," laughed Kelsier. "Hopeful in the sense that you can control it!"

"I think not. To the extent that my copperminds provided me with enough knowledge to restore the oceans and living things, I have been exceptionally fortunate. But given the Lord Ruler-Rashek-'s difficulties, I suspect much further involvement could backfire."

"You know, Saze, you make one humble god."

"The copperminds?" Elend interrupted. "What about them?"

"All the different peoples had very diverse ideas about what, in nature as it had once been, was worth honoring. Between their sacred texts and rituals, I had enough information to reconstruct the planet."

"So you went looking for faith," said Kelsier, "and found knowledge."

"They're hardly mutually exclusive phenomena."

"Well, can you talk to living people now?" asked Vin. "Show them what to have faith in?"

"I can talk to them, I think. But I'm not sure how much of that is desirable."

Kelsier paused, focusing on the distant world. "Do I see you leaving some instructions?"

"Indeed. Not all of the copperminds' contents seemed directly applicable, but perhaps the others can put them to some better use."

"But why not just talk to them?" said Vin. "That must be clearer."

"Rashek was alive and well for a thousand years, and I suspect he was not the most inspiring of companions."

"But you're different. You've taken on both powers, you'd be better."

"You already are better," said Elend. "Rashek kept the world alive, but he couldn't make it _live _like this."

"All the same," said Sazed. "The skaa have been slaves for a thousand years. I don't entirely fancy taking away their freedom, now. Better they make the world on their own."

"Does it matter? If you're able to interfere anyway, are their choices really free?"

"Now you sound like Hammond," Sazed laughed. "However..."

Again came that sensation, of being touched lightly and held firmly from farther away. That time around, Vin caught a glimpse of the world. "That-that's _me! _I mean, my-my body, anyway. What are you doing?"

"Clearly nothing of consequence, as shown by the absolute lack of effect. You see, I can apprehend you, here and now-and at the same time, feel your body, back where it lies. It seems like it should be possible to reunite the two. But, obviously, my power is limited in that respect. And others as well, I think."

"That's all right," said Elend. "I hadn't expected it or anything."

"But are you content? With this state of affairs?"

"To be honest? I am. Vin's here, she's all right, and I...I don't fancy being a general any more, really. Let someone else make peace."

"Peace," Vin echoed. "That's what we have now. And it's a nice change of pace."

"Kelsier?"

"I'd always just as soon be figuring out what I can get up to here," he answered, "you know me."

"I would say inside and out, but unlike in the case of our young friends here, that's not to be taken literally."

Vin paused, parsing that, then said "Ew."

"As long as you're all right here, I'll leave off experimenting for now."

"I am," she said, "really, we are."

"It's funny," said Elend, "that's not-I mean, our real bodies, but-like _that_-I can feel Vin, here, that..."

"Careful, now, you youngsters might need to be sparing me the literal details soon."

Vin laughed, but Sazed grew distant for a moment, whatever a moment meant. He reached out his mind as if searching through his bracelets, paging through to find other minds flashing upon his own.

"Perhaps I am weaker than I thought. It seems...empty here."

"You're looking for Tindwyl." Kelsier didn't bother to ask; he'd had enough of feigning power to take things for granted, even from a god.

"Being rather noncorporeal at present in any event, rest assured it won't be anything worth gossiping about. But I thought I might give her my best..."

"You won't find her," he said, as gently as he could muster, "not yet, not now."

"Can you feel it?" asked Vin. "That other...energy?"

Sazed let his mind drift free again, trying to run up against the borders of the ineffable realm he had found himself wandering. It took a long time, longer perhaps than the remaking of the world, but time was no object.

Then suddenly he did sense it, the swirling power of something absolute and even more distant from him than Vin and the others were from the world. Not accessible-at first try.

He focused on being in the physical world, then tried to see whether he could sense it from there. If anything, it was easier once that he knew what to look for; it had a force to it, like a whirlpool slowly drawing everyone closer.

He changed his focus again, and was back with his friends, the force subsiding. "I can, now. You've just avoided it?"

"I was never one to play by the rules," said Kelsier. "This is _me_ we're talking about."

"It'll be all right," said Vin. "You'll find a way, I trust you."

"It's fine," Sazed said half-heartedly. "If this is what I've become, perhaps it is better for me to cut specific ties."

"That doesn't make sense. I took on the power of Preservation, that doesn't mean Elend and I aren't still close."

"Well, put it this way. I am no longer much of a man, and I am certainly not a _Terrisman _anymore. I would hope that, to the extent I am remembered or converse with anyone else, they do not interpret my heritage as particularly meaningful. That could be divisive, setting us further apart."

"But the Terris people are different," Elend pointed out. "The rest of us can't use Feruchemy."

"Ah, well, perhaps not so different."

"What?" Kelsier asked. "Plotting again, are we?"

"The Terris people are few in number, now. Rather than wait for more with my collection of talents to come along, I think it most fit to distribute the Feruchemical arts more widely. In a few generations the cultures should mingle broadly enough for at least some of the Feruchemical powers to reemerge."

"Not to put too fine a point on it, but the Mistborn population isn't doing so great either."

"There are enough nobles that some Mistings might reappear."

"And full Mistborn?"

"You seem awfully invested in this subject, for being dead."

"Those cloaks were a niche commodity," Kelsier retorted, "I'd hate to see them go to waste."

"People will adapt them, make their own choices. They always do."

"And what about Spook?"

"What about him?"

"I bet you could heal his overflare burnout."

"Savant decay."

"Whatever you call it. And before you start on I'm-not-making-changes, I've _already _been-helping him along-so you might as well at this point."

"You make an engaging argument."

"He won't be able to choose much of anything for himself if his body wears out. In fact...he'll have all the more freedom, were you to make him full Mistborn. I'm confident you can do whatever it is happened to Elend."

"That's Emperor Venture to you," Vin teased.

"Oh, don't you start."

Spook's body rippled, then lay still. "Just for you, Kels," said Sazed.

"So you'll try all sorts of things, if you think there's a chance." said Vin. "Don't give up on Tindwyl-I'm sure she'd miss you too."

"You're sure?" He thought back to teaching her the knowledge of the Keepers, listening to her memorize the contents of his copperminds. After so many years as a Breeder, perhaps she understood his choice, she might have had no hesitation, in his place, to pour the bracelets into herself and let her body fade away.

"Or at least I take it on faith."

"Thank you, then. And yes, I will try."

"We can wait here," Kelsier suggested. "There's no rush. And I must say, this is quite an entertaining vantage point."

"You always were easily amused. But I suspect you have family of your own to see."

"And family of my own to keep an eye on," he responded. "But don't let me keep you, Vin, Elend."

"It'll be nice to see my brother," said Vin. "And I suppose Elend's, in his way."

"Speak for yourself," said Elend.

Sazed paused, creating words out of the blur of space. "Speaking of your family," he said, "Kelsier, I hope you don't mind, I've borrowed your drawing."

Vin scanned through the note. "Let's face it, if _Spook _can become the chief Allomancer, then anything's possible."

It took him ages to figure it out. Vin and Elend trusted he'd pull it off eventually, but they had passed on without Kelsier, who found it far too amusing to stay put for a time. "As long as I figure here I can tell myself there's always another secret," he explained. "After this? I'm not sure."

But then the day came when Sazed-still _Sazed_, for all the talk of harmony-came bounding with a bright excitement. And Kelsier followed him onwards. As mystifying as his story had been, the encounter with truth was worth the wait.

_Quotes from Brandon Sanderson:_

_"Where Tindwyl exists is beyond space and time, in a place Sazed hasn't learned to touch yet. He might yet. If you want to add in your heads him working through that, feel free."_

_"One of the reasons for that line at the end is to give you, the reader, the power and authority to bring to the characters the ending you wish."_

_The title comes from Sonnet 10 by Madeleine L'Engle (another one of my recipient's Yuletide requests)._


End file.
